Healthy Pregnancy and Smart Parenting

Thursday, July 5, 2018

If you
are a woman, you would want to be beautiful, youthful, and forever young.

What is beauty? Is beauty only skin deep, or something only in the beholder’s
eye?

In the Orient, the perception of beauty may vary from that in the West: the
focus in the East on inner beauty or the "inner eye" may sometimes
seem difficult for the Western mind to comprehend.

The
traditional Oriental perception of beauty may have the following inner innate
qualities:

1. Compassion for
others

2.
Detachment from negative thoughts and feelings

3.
Peace of mind and inner tranquility

4.
Right-mindedness from a true heart

A truly
beautiful woman has a serene face with a softening spirit. Such a face is often
a reflection of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual aspects of that
individual. Beauty is more than skin deep: it exudes inner confidence and
radiance.

You may
become aware of the first click of your biological clock around age 30, when
your first streaks of silver appear on your hair, or around 35 when you first
notice your crow’s feet (for some, this may have happened much sooner). Can you
turn back the biological clock?

According
to Phyllis R. Koch-Sheras, clinical psychologist and professor at
the University of Virginia in Charlottesville,
understanding the changes and learning how to accept and cope with them are
anti-aging strategies.

Complement
your inner beauty with your extrinsic beauty. Nature has given you a lovely
face: take good care of it and preserve it diligently with daily facial
regimens to make you forever look the best of your age.

Your
skin is your beauty. The youthful look of a person is primarily based on the
skin of that individual. After all, the first impression of a person is the
face: the skin color, the skin texture, and the feel and touch of the skin.
Your skin renews itself every 35 to 45 days. Do not interrupt or slow down that
skin cell replication process with alcohol or nicotine. Get right and get
enough sleep. Above all, do everything you can to maintain its color, texture,
and softness. Makeup only masks the defects.

Naturally Skinsational: It provides
natural skincare recipes to keep your skin youthful and healthy. It saves you a
lot of money on cosmetics that don't work.

Thursday, June 21, 2018

The man
plays a pivotal role in the pregnancy of a woman. In addition to giving the
sperms to make the pregnancy a reality, the man plays an important role during
and throughout the pregnancy.

The
father-to-be should become actively involved in every aspect of pregnancy:
attending prenatal check-ups; seeing ultrasound scans; listening to the baby;
feeling the baby moving. In addition, he should become knowledgeable, such as
talking to his friends or relatives who are fathers-to-be, or who have recently
become fathers. He should also make an effort to attend prenatal classes to
empower himself with knowledge of pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Most
importantly, the man should prepare himself with information about what to do
in case of emergencies.

The
father-to-be should encourage his wife to get more family support, especially
her mother, to create a stronger bond between mother and daughter, and even the
mother-in-law, especially if the relationship has not been good, and now is the
time to mend it.

The man
should appreciate his wife’s changing body and emotional feelings. She might
have feelings of fear, doubt, and uncertainty. He should give her a sense of
security, and a feeling that he is always there for her. It is also important
for the man to share his own feelings with her, instead of letting her feel
that she is on her own.

As the
husband, the man should expect some changes in their sex life, and thus learn
to adjust accordingly. The man should help his pregnant wife to feel happy and
relaxed throughout the entire pregnancy. In addition to spending more time at
home, the man and his wife should exercise together to get her in shape, as
well as to tone up the muscles getting physically ready for labor.

When
the baby is born, there will be a lot of work for the new parents. Therefore,
the man should do grocery and household work to let her get more rest, as well
as to prepare himself for the daily chores ahead.

The
father-to-be should learn how to massage his wife to help her overcome some
physical discomforts throughout the pregnancy, especially the lower back. He
should also know how hold and support her during labor: massaging her
lower back, neck, inner thighs, and feet; constantly reminding her to breathe
and relax. It is also important for the man to practice with his wife different
birth positions—lying on the back, squatting, and kneeling—to facilitate labor
and delivery.

When
the time comes for the birth of the baby, the father-to-be should be ready,
alert, and available when water breaks or when contractions begin. He should be
present at the delivery room. In addition to keeping calm, he should be
prepared for the expected, such as what happens during labor, as well as for
the unexpected.

Be a
smart father-to-be to have a healthy baby. Parenting is always challenging.

Monday, June 18, 2018

In this
day and age with the advancement of technology, living in the now is not easy.
Speed is everything, and performance is based on speed and efficiency, which
has much to do with speed too. As a result of the craving for speed, the human
mind slowly and increasingly becomes more compulsive.

According
to the most recent NBC news, even young children have become addicted to speed
with their multi social media in their digital world that they have become
disconnected with the real world and the people around them.

As a
parent, you should make sure that your child or children stay more in the
present. Of course, you, as the parent, should also set a good example, such
as, not talking on the phone while driving.

Are you
yourself living in the present? If you are, your mind should not be focusing on
the electronic gadgets, which you are holding in your hands. According to the
NBC news report, some children are even texting hundreds of messages a day, and
they have lost physical contacts with their families and friends. Instead of
eating their dinners, they are looking at their electronic devices. This
multitasking is not living in the present, just as texting while driving is not
living in the present

Not
living in the present is akin to the mind shuffling between the past and the
future. Your actions or inactions are derived and driven by your thoughts and
memories of your past experiences, and how you project them into the future as
desires and expectations. Accordingly, the human mind constantly shuffles
between the past and the future. As a result, it seldom stays in the present
moment. To illustrate, while talking on the cell phone, how often do you talk
about what happened or what you are going to do next? If you think more deeply,
the subject of your conversation mostly involves the past or the future. In a
worse scenario, if you are talking or texting while driving, your mental focus
is certainly not on the present—which is driving your car.

The
first step to train your mind to focus more on the present is to concentrate on
your breathing. Most of us are totally unaware of our breaths, unless we are
short of breath after running or climbing stairs, or due to some medical
conditions that may cause difficulties in breathing. Concentration on how you
breathe in and breathe out, as well as your body’s sensations during the
inhalation and exhalation trains you to develop mindfulness. It is
important to know that your body is yours only,
and it is always with you.
Finding the moment-by-moment relationship with your body through your breathing
is your key to wellness of the body, the mind, and the soul. Be mindful of the
present.

Mindfulness
is your deliberate attention to the present moment. This purposeful focus
enables you to recognize your thoughts as they occur, but without paying
judgmental attention to them; in other words, they neither distract nor disturb
you, and you just observe them
objectively, like watching a movie about yourself unfolding before your very
eyes. Essentially, letting the mind stay in the present is a simple way to
meditate.

Learn mindfulness from
an expert who provides a useful guide to harness the power of your mind
with mental training tools and techniques to perfect the art of mental
transformation. Are you living your life, or your life living you?

Thursday, June 14, 2018

If you're a mother, you must have experienced pain in your delivery or during your pregnancy. We all experience pain--which is an inevitable reality in life.

Many people may choose to believe that God has inflicted
pain--physical, emotional, and spiritual pain--on them to punish them because
of their sins and disobedience. The paradox is: who is really
responsible for the pain that comes with aging, separation, physical loss, and
dying, among others. The truth of the matter is that humans have no control
over their pain. This human limitation is a common human dilemma. Who is really responsible
for human pain?

The paradox further perplexes when humans deny the pain, while
striving for healing--just like an alcoholic or a drug addict denying,
rationalizing, and blaming. That doesn't work. Pain, much like an addiction,
can never be overcome simply by denial, rationalization, and
unaccountability.

Pain, despite its darker and unpleasant side, enables us to look
at and reflect on the pain we are experiencing. Pain may even show us the
brighter side of life--being thankful for what we have, and grateful for not
getting what we rightly deserve. Just think about that!

To effectively cope with pain, we must accept it in the first
place without denying its existence, then we must embrace it, that is,
experiencing it fully and completely, whether we like it or not, and then,
surprisingly, we will be on the road to healing and recovery. This is the
reality of life. Whether you believe in God or not, this is the miracle of
living.

Don’t exercise when diagnosed with an incompetent cervix (a high risk for
miscarriage in the second trimester).

Do Select
the Right Exercise

Stretching

Stretching is one of the best exercises during pregnancy. It focuses on
flexibility, which plays a pivotal role in body balance, posture, physical
fitness, and overall well-being. Flexibility, one of the essential components
of fitness, is much needed during pregnancy. Unlike many other physical
exercises that emphasize fitness strength and endurance, stretching focuses on
reducing muscle tension and the potential for fall. Stretching also emphasizes
correct breathing which is essential to a healthy pregnancy, especially during
labor.

Do get the book STRETCHING by Simon Frost (Barnes &
Noble).The book provides many simple and easy-to-follow illustrations of how to
perform many different stretch exercises to attain total flexibility of
different types of muscles to help labor and childbirth.

Yoga

Yoga is an ancient exercise that teaches body awareness through
breathing and relaxation, thereby instrumental in facilitating labor and
childbirth.

Walking is an ideal exercise, especially during the first two
trimesters.

Do practice awareness walking, which is walking with full attention to
what you are doing—noticing the movement of your limbs, the shifting of your
body weight as you move your right and left foot. Awareness walking enhances
your concentration and mental focus, which play a pivotal role during labor and
childbirth.

Don’t walk while talking on the cell phone, or listening to music.
Avail the opportunity to focus on your body, or any subliminal message
you have created, such as “I’m going to have a healthy baby.”

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Teach
your child to read as early as possible if you are a smart parent.

The
ability to read holds the keyto intelligence as
it unlocks the door to a vast realm of human knowledge. There is, in fact, a
very close connection between reading ability and intelligence, since children
learn mostly by reading. In addition, the skill of reading, once acquired, will
be used and enjoyed all their lives, just like swimming or cycling.

Therefore,
reading is a human skill fundamental to academic and intellectual progress, and
the failure of schools to teach all children to read efficiently has become an
acute problem in education, especially in the United States. Illiteracyin
America
is still growing at an alarming rate. In fact, according to the National
Adult Literacy Survey, about 42 million adult Americans cannot read, and
another 50 million people whose reading skill is so poor that they can hardly
be qualified as literates.

Reading should
always begin at home, and parents should be children's first teachers.
Ideally, teaching children to read should be the jointefforts of
both parents and teachers. It has always been a wrong presumption that
teachers aloneshould do the teaching of reading and that
teaching should be conducted only at school. Contrary to popular belief,
educational researchers have found that important aspects of intellectual
behavior are often acquired at homerather than at school.

Parenthood
is not just a moment; it is an ongoing process. It would be wrong for parents
to assume that they could ease their responsibility of teaching once their
children attend school. At best, the nursery or kindergarten should be an
adjunctto, not a substitutefor, the home and the role
of parents.

Since
parents teach their children to talk, it is only natural that they should teach
them to read as well. If parents think they should educate their children, they
should shoulder the responsibility of teaching their children to read. To teach
their children to read and write is the greatest giftand enjoymentof
all parents. If you do notenjoyyour child, why did you bother
having one in the first place?

Monday, June 4, 2018

Sleep is natural to man. It
relaxes and rejuvenates both the body and the mind. Good sleep is an essential
component of holistic health and wellness, especially during pregnancy.

Good sleep is just as important to
your health as exercise and a balanced diet. Good natural sleep is important to
a healthy pregnancy.

Unfortunately, many pregnant
mothers have developed sleep problems during their pregnancy. Sleep problems
have little to do with how much sleep you can get. As a matter of fact, experts
cannot agree on how many hours an individual should sleep: some experts say if
you sleep 1 to 2 hours less than what you should, you will suffer sleep
deprivation; others maintain that you should sleep at least 8 to 9 hours for
optimum health during pregnancy. But both sleep deprivation and oversleeping
may cause health problems. The bottom line is not the quantity but rather
the quality of sleep you are getting that defines your sleep health
during pregnancy. Hence, sleep problems have to do with how well you sleep,
and, of course, whether you can sleep at all.

Sleep problems derive from
stressful emotional and mental problems during pregnancy. Natural sleep is
about relaxation of the body and the mind. Stress is the No. 1 enemy of
emotional and mental health. When you are under stress, your body naturally
responds to the increased tension by producing hormone epinephrine. Excess
production of this hormone may wear out your hormonal glands, leading to
elevation of blood sugar, acceleration of breathing rate, increase of muscle
tension, and excessive sweating—all contributing to insomnia.

Do get my book NO EGO NO
STRESS. The book has an unconventional approach to stress relieve: it is
based on the ancient wisdom from China. Learn how to let go of your
ego in order to live a stress-free life.

In addition, during pregnancy,
physical discomforts, such as constipation, cramps, heartburn, indigestion, and
frequent urination, among others, may also result in difficulty sleeping.

The Dos and
Don’ts of Healthy Sleep Throughout Pregnancy

Do keep a regular sleep pattern
throughout the pregnancy.

Do sleep and lie on your left-hand
side (why: preventing the baby from pressing on the inferior vena cava,
the blood vessels responsible for bringing blood to your heart)

Do sleep on several pillows,
tucking under your belly, as well as under and between your legs to provide
extra comfort for a better sleep position.

Do exercise regularly.

Do drink a glass of warm milk
before going to bed.

Don’t sleep less on weekends; regularity
is important.

Don’t sleep flat on your back,
especially in the last few weeks of your pregnancy (why not: this may
result in palpitations and other problems).